Seat missing when Reiser car seized, 2 weeks after disappearance

THE REISER TRIAL

The front passenger seat of computer programmer Hans Reiser's car was missing when Oakland police seized it more than two weeks after his estranged wife disappeared, officers who secretly tracked him testified Wednesday.

The prosecution believes Reiser killed his wife amid an acrimonious divorce and used his Honda CRX to move her body, which hasn't been found since she disappeared on Sept. 3, 2006, after dropping off their children at his home in the Oakland hills. The defense has countered that Reiser removed the seat to make the car more comfortable to sleep in.

Officer Larry Robertson testified that he was surveilling Reiser on Sept. 18, 2006, when Reiser parked the Honda on Monterey Boulevard off Highway 13 in Oakland and walked away. The vehicle didn't have its front passenger seat, and it was later towed, Officer Jim Saleda said.

Reiser, 44, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered his wife. The defense has suggested that Nina Reiser is setting up her husband and could be hiding in her native Russia.

After Reiser parked the Honda, he jogged and walked briskly up Shepherd Canyon Road in the hills before police lost sight of him, Saleda testified.